China October industrial profits fall 4.6%
November 27, 2015, 4:05 am

[Xinhua]

The profits of China’s major industrial firms fell 4.6 per cent year on year in October, worsening from the 0.1-per cent decline posted in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.

Profits at industrial companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan (about $3.1 million) totaled 559.52 billion yuan in October.

Dropping sales and rising costs, as well as narrowing profits in the mining and raw material sectors, contributed to the decline, said He Ping, an official with the Department of Industry at the NBS.

Despite the industrial profit decline, there was growth in industries favored by China’s restructuring policies. For example, profits in high-tech manufacturing sector rose 14.2 per cent in October year on year, while the equipment manufacturing sector expanded 8.6 per cent and sectors related to consumption rose 4.3 per cent, according to He.

Industrial profits in the first 10 months of 2015 dropped 2 per cent year on year to around 4.87 trillion yuan, the NBS said. The decline widened from the 1.7 per cent registered in the Jan.-Sept. period.

State-owned industrial companies saw their profits plummet 25 per cent in the first 10 months, while private firms offered a brighter outlook, with profits rising 6.2 per cent in the same period.

Facing lingering downward risks, Chinese authorities have ramped up efforts to prop up the economy. The central bank has cut benchmark interest rates five times since last November and lowered banks’ reserve requirement ratio three times since February.

57 founding members, many of them prominent US allies, will sign into creation the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Monday, the first major global financial instrument independent from the Bretton Woods system.

Representatives of the countries will meet in Beijing on Monday to sign an agreement of the bank, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. All the five BRICS countries are also joining the new infrastructure investment bank.

The agreement on the $100 billion AIIB will then have to be ratified by the parliaments of the founding members, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing in Beijing.

The AIIB is also the first major multilateral development bank in a generation that provides an avenue for China to strengthen its presence in the world’s fastest-growing region.